david lelyveld

Sauda Sulaf: Urdu in the Two Version’s of

Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s Asaru’s-Sanadid

When sayyid ahmad khan was thirty years old, he published an account
of the Urdu language, embedded in a handsome illustrated volume about
the buildings, old and new, and the contemporary personalities of Delhi.
A munsif in the judicial service of the East India Company, he had just
returned to his native city after an absence of some seven years. The first
edition of Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd (Traces of the Notables) has much in common
with earlier Persian prototypes, more an album (muraqqaʿ), guidebook,
gazetteer and biographical dictionary (taẕkira) than historical narrative.
Over the following five years, however, Sayyid Ahmad came in contact with
members of the newly founded Archaeological Society of Delhi, Arthur
Austin Roberts, the British commissioner of Delhi, and Edward Thomas,
who encouraged him to recast the book as a more strictly ìarchaeological
history.î1 In that second version, he included a short khātimah (appen-
dix) devoted to Urdu, but eliminated the extensive discussions of con-
temporary poets and extracts of their poetry.2

1
Edward Thomas refers to ìSyud Ahmad Khánís excellent Archaeological His-
tory of Delhiî in The Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi (1871, 20).
2
Sayyid Āḥmad Khān, Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd (1847) and (1854). I have used copies in
the British Library and, for the second edition, the New York Public Library. Christian
W. Troll has written an exemplary account of the two versions (1972) which
includes extensive bibliographical information. I am grateful to C.M. Naim for
sharing with me his ìSyed Ahmad and His Two Books Called ëAsar-al-Sanadid,íî
forthcoming in Modern Asian Studies 2011 (vol. 45, no. 3). My present essay derives
from a longer work in progress and a paper originally written at the suggestion of
Vasudha Dalmia for a panel at the 18th European Conference on Modern South
Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden, July 2004. Jennifer Dubrow shared with me
her work and a photocopy of the first edition of Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd, and Professor
Asghar Abbas of Aligarh Muslim University very kindly sent me copies of facsimiles
of the two editions, recently published by the Sir Syed Academy, Aligarh Muslim

21
22 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26

The two versions are substantially different in what they say about the
language, especially when taken in the full context of the two works in
which they appear. The first edition was above all a celebration of Delhi as
a living culture, a gulshan-e jannat, (garden of paradise) (Āḥmad Khān 1847,
11); the second was an archaeological study concerned with the chrono-
logical layers in the cityís history of superseding regimes of power and
authority. The brief accounts of Urdu partake of this distinction, an epis-
temological reordering that sets the stage for thinking about language and
languages in a new way. The change in Sayyid Ahmadís own prose in
these two editions may also express this shift. Both discussions serve as
documents of the times in which they were written, clues to the linguistic
self-consciousness of the writer with respect to language, literature and
language community. 3
In the first version of Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd, Sayyid Ahmad starts with the
here and now: Urdu is identified as the language current ìhere,î the lan-
guage that ìeveryone speaks.î4 Although Delhi is an ancient, imperial city, it
had always been characterized by linguistic disunity. People spoke separate
languages (bẖākhā), first under Hindu rulers, then under the succession
of Muslim dynasties. Under Muslim rule, bargaining (saudā sulaf) , ex-
changing, buying and selling (lēnē dēnē, bēčnē bačānē) were all the more
difficult because of the diversity of languages. Then under Akbar, Persian
became so dominant that other languages could not develop. Only when
Shāhjahāñ established his capital in Delhi and commanded people from
all over the land to settle there did the languages begin to strike a bargain
(again, saudā sulaf) . Because it was the language of the court, associated
with the royal bazaar, called the urdū, it was called Urdu and became
virtually the language of all the Muslims of Hindustan. Then came the
great Urdu poets Mīr and Saudā, who established the literary reputation of
the language. Delhi was to Urdu what Shiraz was to Persian; it set the
standard (sanad). Unfortunately people from other cities tend to make
excessive use of Persian words and constructions. They undermine the
urdūpan, the special character, of the language. No rules can be estab-
lished to determine how much Persian one may use in Urdu. Such matters
can only rely on the actual speech of the ahl-e zubān, the native speakers
of the language, that is the people of Delhi (1847, 428). 5

University, 2007. The Harvard University Library copy of the second edition is now
available via Google Books.
3
For current scholarship cf. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Early Urdu Literary Cul-
ture and History (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000).
4
See Appendix 1 of this paper.
5
See translation in Appendix 1.
 David Lelyveld • 23

Although this discussion dips into the past, what it is really about is
the contemporary linguistic authority of Delhi. Urdu starts with the estab-
lishment of the most recent of Delhiís cities, Shāhjahānābād, but it is a
result of a bargaining process, saudā sulaf, among speakers of different,
unspecified languages. It is the literary achievement of two great poets in
the late eighteenth century that has established the excellence of the lan-
guage, comparable to what the great poets of Shiraz, such as Ḥāfi and
Saʿdī, did for Persian. This discussion of Urdu, it may be noted, stands out
in the first edition for its easy, idiomatic expression, as if focusing on the
language led Sayyid Ahmad to abandon the heavy Persian rhetoric that
characterizes most of the first edition. 6 It was, in fact, not just the people
of other cities who were capable of undermining urdūpan in order to
display their learning and virtuosity in the tradition of Indian Persian.
In A House Divided, Amrit Rai seized on a quotation from this pas-
sage to show that Sayyid Ahmad considered Urdu to be the language of
ìthe Muslims of India,î a piece of evidence in his general argument that
the differentiation of Urdu from Hindi emerged as a rearguard action on
the part of the declining Mughal aristocracy. Read, however, in its full
context, the passage as a whole suggests something quite different: the
standard language, Sayyid Ahmad claims, should be set by the ordinary
speech of the ahl-e zubān of Delhi. People of other cities have under-
mined the special character of Urdu, its urdūpan, by weighing it down
with Persian vocabulary and constructions. It is not Muslims that have
created Urdu, but the processes of exchange among numerous groups in
a particular place. The phrase that Amrit Rai quoted, from a quotation in a
secondary source, is ìgōyā hindūstān kē musalmān kī yahī zubān tẖī.î
He translated this as, ìThat is to say, this was the language of the Muslims
of Indiaî (1984, 260). 7 This is probably more emphatic than it needs to be.
I would translate it as, ìIt was as if this was the particular language of the
Muslims of Hindustan,î that is, that the language of Shāhjāhanābād be-
came popular among the Muslims of the Gangetic region, Hindustan. It is
clear from the passage as a whole that Sayyid Ahmad, like Mīr Amman
Dihlavī and Inshāʾ before him, is asserting the linguistic authority of Delhi,
not of Muslims in general.
Sayyid Ahmad clearly drew upon Mīr Ammanís discussion of the

6
Alāf Ḥusain Ḥālī (1901, 73) criticizes the first edition for its old style, overly
colorful, exaggerated and complex language. See also Trollís analysis of compa-
rable passages in the two editions (1972, 137–39).
7
Compare my articles, ìZuban-e Urdu-e Muʿalla and the Idol of Linguistic
Originsî (1994) and ìEloquence and Authority in Urdu: Poetry, Oratory and Filmî
(1988).
24 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26

origins of Urdu in the preface to Bāgh-o-Bahār, the text published in 1801

at Fort William College for the instruction of British officials. In addition to
following a good deal of the general argument, he quotes it explicitly in
recognition that different people have different ideas about what counts
as good language: ìNot that, in the words of Mīr Amman, anyone thinks ill
of his (own) turban, gait or speech. If someone asks a peasant, and he
calls it citified [shahrvālā] and thinks his is betterówell, the wise know
which is best.î 8 In contrast to the highly Persianized diction of most of the
first edition of Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd, Sayyid Ahmadís account of Urdu partakes
of the earthy, playful language that characterizes Bāgh-o-Bahār. The great
difference is that Mīr Amman goes on to attribute the perfection of Urdu
to his Scottish patron, John Gilchrist, whereas Sayyid Ahmad mentions
only Mīr and Saudā.
During the years that intervened between the two editions of Āṡāruíṣ-
Ṣanādīd, however, Sayyid Ahmad was increasingly drawn into European
ideas, methods and social relations. When Arthur Austin Roberts, the Col-
lector and Magistrate of Delhi, traveled to England, he took a copy of the
first edition with him to present to the Royal Asiatic Society. He returned
with the idea of enlisting Sayyid Ahmad to help him prepare an English
translation. In the process of discussing the work, however, Sayyid Ahmad
was persuaded that it needed substantial revision with respect to organi-
zation, chronology, and the accuracy of many of the details in the text.
Although Sayyid Ahmad already had significant interactions with a number
of British contemporaries, his association with the Archaeological Society
of Delhi and some of its British members arose out of this project. 9
The discussion of the language in the second edition (1854) of Āṡāruíṣ-
Ṣanādīd is offered as an appendix (khātimah) to the three chapters
(bāb), published originally in separate fascicles, which make up the body
of the text. 10 Throughout the work, due attention is paid to dates, pro-
vided according to Hindu, Muslim and Christian calendars. The appendix
on Urdu serves as an introduction to the final section devoted to reproduc-
tions of inscriptions in Brahmi, Nagri, Kufic, Naskh, and Nastaliq scripts
that Sayyid Ahmad and his collaborator, Maulānā Imām Baksh Ṣahbāʾī,
carefully traced on the sites. According to Ḥālī, Sayyid Ahmadís biog-
rapher, the task of copying the higher inscriptions of the Qutb Minar

8
This is a translation of a direct quote from Bāgh-o-Bahār. See Shackle and
Snell (1990, 86); also, Mir Amman Dihlavi (1994, xvi). All translations are mine unless
otherwise noted.
9
Āḥmad Khān (1854, English preface) and Troll (1972, 139ñ43). On Roberts, see
Buckland (1906, 360).
10
See my translation in Appendix 2.
 David Lelyveld • 25

required him to be hoisted in a čẖīnkā, a sort of net made of rope, while

his friend looked on in terror (1901, 72). The vigorous empiricism of this
ìenthusiastic antiquary,î as Edward Thomas (1871, 20) called him, had totally
transformed Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd.
The appendix on the Urdu language in the 1854 edition consists of
eleven numbered paragraphs, followed by brief literary examples of the
various poetic forms discussed in the text. The first five paragraphs are
historical, starting with an undifferentiated condition of linguistic unity:
under Hindu rule the language of reading, writing and speech was Hindi.
With the establishment of Muslim rule, the language of government
became Persian, but the language of the subjects remained the same. Here
Sayyid Ahmad provides a definite date, with Muslim, Christian and Hindu
(Vikramjit) equivalents. He then jumps forward three hundred years to the
reign of Sikandar Lōdẖī, again with a definite date according to Muslim
and Christian calendars, when Hindu Kayasthas, educated in Persian, took
up official posts throughout the realm. Other Hindus then followed, also
learning Persian. Although Hindus continued to speak Hindi and Muslims,
Persian, the poet Amīr Khusrau had used ìbẖāshāî in his Persian verse and
written some minor works entirely in that language. Then came Shāhjahāñ
óagain there are datesóand the establishment of Shāhjahānābād, caus-
ing Persian-speaking Muslims and Hindi-speaking Hindus to create a new
mixed language. Since this mixed language was associated with the army
and the royal court, it came to be known as Urdu. Under the rule of
Aurañgzēbóagain with a specific date according to two calendarsó
people started writing poetry in this language, though it was not very
good. He says that Valī was not the first, and only with Mīr and Saudā did
poetry reach a high level. Mīr Amman, Sayyid Ahmad says, later achieved
in Urdu prose what Mīr had done for poetry. ʿAbduíl-Qādir and Rafīʿuíd-
Dīn translated the Qurʾān and other religious texts into Urdu. This con-
cludes the historical sequence.
Sayyid Ahmad then goes on to discuss some of the features of Urdu
literature. Most poetry, for example, follows Persian conventions in iden-
tifying the beloved as male, but rēkhtī poetry is written as if by a woman.
Finally, he defines three kinds of wordplay in verse: nisbatēñ, pahēlī, and
mukrī. He closes the discussion with a few examples of these verse forms:
some riddles traditionally associated with Amīr Khusrau, a couplet in rēkhtī,
and three couplets by Mīr.11

11
Aside from the conventional use of Mīrís pen name in two of the couplets,
Sayyid Ahmad does not identify the authors. See Raiís discussion and selection of
the riddles controversially attributed to Amīr Khusrau (1984, 140–45).
26 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26

Sayyid Ahmadís first edition had recognized a multiplicity of languages

and language communities, the migrations over time of various groups
both from within India and outside, and the absence of standardization.
Political domination only played a role when Shāhjahāñ established a
new capital city, setting the conditions for increased mobility and exchange.
In this account, Urdu emerged in the first instance out of commercial
transactions and everyday conversation, ṣuḥbat, and it was the work of
the great poets of the language that established the standard language and
made it a model for a wider linguistic community beyond the city. Sayyid
Ahmadís own prose in this first version exemplified the literary and
linguistic virtuosity and conversational elegance of this milieu. Above all,
Urdu was celebrated as the spoken language of ìeveryone hereî in Delhi,
the contemporary language of a living culture.
The second version of Sayyid Ahmadís account of Urdu is character-
ized by its methodical arrangement, unadorned prose style, concern with
the chronology of historical stages, and the presentation of samples; it is
also notable for the absence of enthusiasm, idiomatic language, and, most
of all, an open sense of variation and flexibility that marked the earlier
text. Presented in numbered paragraphs like an official document, each
item in the series is enclosed in a separate compartment, first according to
a notion of historical sequence, then according to particular literary features.
This second discussion presumes an undifferentiated Hindi ìbẖāshāî of
the Hindus, on the one hand, and Persian ìzubānî as the language of a
foreign Muslim ruling class, on the other. Urdu is presented as a mixture
of the two, but no claims are made for its linguistic dominance, let alone
for its association with Delhi or, for that matter, Muslims. It is, instead, set
apart as a residue of minor literary curiosities.
The difference between Sayyid Ahmadís two brief accounts of Urdu is
probably more interesting than the substance of each taken separately.
What he has to say about language should probably be read alongside the
major sections of the book devoted to descriptions of the forts, temples,
mosques, palaces and tombs of Delhiís past. One could imagine, and
perhaps locate, for example, accounts of the site of the Qutb Minar and its
adjoining mosque that are analogous to later debates about Hindi/Urdu/
Hindustani: bits and pieces of ìHinduî culture, broken down and reas-
sembled into a whole, new ìMuslimî structure. Stones with their sculp-
tured images become mosques; words with their ìIndicî origins, sounds
and syntax stitched into ghazals and maṡnavīs. This is the sort of thing
that scholars of a previous generation like Louis Dumont, building on a
long tradition of British colonial social anthropology, argued with respect
to Hindu-like ìcasteî and ritual among Muslims in India; the elements
 David Lelyveld • 27

might be similar, but they were differently arranged into separate ideo-
logical structures. ìHindus and Muslims form two distinct societies from the
point of view of ultimate values,î he concluded (1972, 257). But Sayyid
Ahmad did not believe that. At least at this point in his life, the issue had
not been drawn in these terms. He was not trying to make grand state-
ments about all of India, India as a nation, or what it would mean to be a
Muslim or to speak Urdu in a world constituted by such categories. His
ideas of language and history were more modest than that, a matter of
bargaining, saudā sulaf, among multiple groups in what was still a fluid
society. But by rearranging his study of Delhiís monuments into a chrono-
logical account and demarcating Urdu as an object of study, with a history
and an identifiable community of speakers, Sayyid Ahmad was one of
those who raised the question how culture could be made to serve the
purposes of inclusion and exclusion in a colonial society. 

Appendix 1
28 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26
 David Lelyveld • 29

Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd, 1847, Part 4, pp. 11–13. (Facsimile ed. Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim
University, Sir Syed Academy, 2007, pp. 425–27).
30 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26

Translation

The language that is current here and that everyone now speaks is called
Urdu. Urdu, in fact, is a Persian word that means bazaar, and Urdu comes
from the urdū of Shāhjahāñ. Although Delhi is a very ancient city and was
always the capital of all the kingdoms [rājā prājā] of the Hindus, people
spoke separate languages [bẖākẖā] and these languages did not merge.
When Muslims took over the administration of Hindustan, and Muslim
people came into these cities, things got more difficult. With the coming
of people speaking new languages, bargaining [saudā sulaf] , buying and
selling, became difficult. At first, there was discord in the government of
the Muslims, sometimes the rule of one group, sometimes another: the
Ghōrīs came, then the Lōdẖīs, then the Pathans, then the Mughals. And
for this reason there was regular discord in language, and nobody could
undertake to make reforms. When Akbar became king, a diverse kingdom
was established and everyone stayed in a fixed abode. There was intel-
lectual inquiry, but at this time the Persian language had such standing
that people did not look elsewhere. When Shahābuíd-Dīn Shāhjahāñ
became king, he reorganized the realm, ordering that representatives of
every country [mulk ] attend and settle in Delhi. He built the fort and
named it Shāhjahānābād. Then people from every country gathered.
Their speech and ways of life were different. When matters came up
among them, one word in one language, two words in another and three
in another all combined and reached a bargain [saudā sulaf] . Gradually
this language achieved some order and became a new language, and
since it was current in the royal bazaars in particular, it was called Urdu.
The royal aristocracy used it; and as it was becoming, so to speak, the
particular language of the Muslims of Hindustan, it gradually came to be
known as Urdu [gōyā hindūstān kē musalmān kī yahī zubān tẖī, hōtē hōtē
khud is zubān hī kā urdū nām hō gayā] . 12 From that time the language
began to shine and was fashioned till the time that the eloquence of Mīr
and Saudā raised high its renown and everyone heard of it. Then the
language became regular and brought forth a wondrous display [rañg
dẖañg ] . After them there were changes and transformations, and such a
confluence [mānjẖ] that nothing could be better till Judgment Day [qiyāmat].
Shāhjahānābād was to this language what Shiraz was to Persian, that is,
the language of the people here set the standard [sanad] for all Urdu

12
Translated in Rai (1984, 260) as: ìThat is to say, this was the language of the
Muslims of India.î Note that elsewhere (ibid., 241ñ42) Rai quotes the passage from
the 1854 ed.
 David Lelyveld • 31

speakers. Not that, in the words of Mīr Amman, anyone thinks ill of his
turban, gait or speech. If someone asks a peasant, and he calls it citified
[shahrvālā] and thinks his is betterówell, the wise know which is best. 13
Although Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit words are often used in this
language, and among them there have been changes and transformations,
at that time the people of other cities began writing in a way that mixed in
many Persian words and Persian constructions. These things were not
good for maintaining the particular style of Urdu [urdūpan]. It was
apparent from these things that no rule could be established to limit
Persian constructions and (decide) which words and languages ought not
to be used. These matters would have to rely on the conversation [ṣūḥbat]
of native-speakers [ahl-e zubān].

13
As noted above, this is a direct, though unacknowledged quote from Bāgh-
o-Bahār. See Shackle and Snell (1990, 86) and Mir Amman Dihlavi (1994, xvi).
32 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26

Appendix 2
David Lelyveld • 33
34 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26
 David Lelyveld • 35

Āṡāruíṣ-Ṣanādīd, , 2nd ed., pp. 104–107 [Harvard University Library copy

available online via Google Books under the title Asar-oos-Sunnadeed ] .
36 • The Annual of Urdu Studies, No. 26

Translation

(1) Under the rule of the Hindus, speaking, writing and reading here were
in the Hindi language [bẖāshā]. In 587 ah, equivalent to 1191 ce and 1249
Vikramjit, when the sultanate of the Muslims seized control here, the royal
administration [daftar] became Persian, but the language of the subjects
remained the same. Until 892 ah, equivalent to 1488 ce, Persian did not
spread among the subjects beyond the royal administration. A little after
that, in the era of Sulān Sikandar Lōdẖī, Kayasthas, who were always
occupied with domestic matters [umūrāt-e mulkī] and administrative
arrangements, were the first among the Hindus to start to write and read
Persian, and gradually other communities [qaum] began, and Persian
writing and reading spread among the Hindus too.
(2) There were no alterations or changes in Hindi up to the era of
Bābar and Jahāñgīr, but Muslims continued to use Persian in their conver-
sation and Hindus continued to use bẖāshā. Still in the time of the Khiljī
rulers, that is, in the thirteenth century ce, Amīr Khusrau began to use
words in bẖāshā in his Persian language and recited some riddles and
conundrums [pahēliyāñ, mukriyāñ, nisbastēñ] in a language that included
mostly words in bẖāshā. Most likely the joining [milāp ] of the language
[bẖāshā] started from that time, but it could not be said that there was a
separate language [zubān ] . At the time that Shāhjahāñ Bādshāh settled in
the city of Shāhjahānābād in 1058 ah, equivalent to 1648 ce, and people
gathered from every land [mulk] , the Persian language [zubān ] and the
Hindi language [bẖāshā] got very mixed and because of the abundant
usage of some Persian words and mostly words in bẖāshā, there were
alterations and changes. As a result of the combination of these two
languages in the royal army and imperial court [urdū-e muʿallā] , a new
language was created, and for this reason called the language of urdū,
then from much usage the word language was omitted, and people
started to call the language Urdu. Gradually the language achieved culture
[tahẕīb] and regularity [ārāstagī] to the point that in approximately 1100
ah, equivalent to 1688 ce, that is, in the era of Aurañgzēb ʿAlāmgīr, poetic
composition started up. Although it is widely believed that Valī was the
first to compose poetry in this language, it is clear from Valīís own verses
that even before him there were those who composed poems in this
language because he makes fun of the language of other poets in his
verses; but the poetry of that time was dull and utterly sloppy (nihāyat
sust bandish). Then day by day it improved to the point that Mīr and
Saudā brought it to perfection.
(3) The language of Mīr was so clear and cultured and the fine expres-
 David Lelyveld • 37

sions in his verses were so effortless that everyone till this day praises
him. Saudāís language is also very fine and the sharpness of his subjects
surpasses Mīr, but his language does not reach Mīrís language.
(4) Among the writers of Urdu prose, Mīr Amman, who wrote Bāgh-o-
Bahār, has achieved superiority; in fact, Mīr Ammanís perfection in prose
writing is like Mīrís in poetry.
(5) Maulvī ʿAbduíl-Qādir Ṣāḥib and Maulvī Rafīʿuíd-Dīn Ṣāḥib did the
first Urdu translations from Arabic. Maulvī ʿAbduíl-Qādir Ṣāḥibís transla-
tion of the Qurʾān [kalām Allāh] was a great authorization of the Urdu
lexicon, and Maulvī Rafīʿuíd-Dīn Ṣāḥibís was a great certification [umda
dastāvēz ] of its grammar [tarkīb naḥvī] .
(6) Poetry in the Urdu language follows the manner of Persian poetry
in which a young man writes verse as if in praise of a beautiful boy.
(7) In the Hindi language the system is for poetry to be in the language
of a woman in loving relationship to a man, and occasionally poetry in
the Urdu language is written in the same way and people call it rekhtī.
Probably about 1220 ah, equivalent to 1805 ce, Inshāʾaíl-Lāh Khān popu-
larized [spread (rivāj ) ] this [form].
(8) All Urdu verse is written according to Persian forms and genres,
except the prosody [vazn] of riddles and conundrums [mukrī and pahēlī]
is otherwise and the language is what one usually encounters in bẖāshā.
(9) Nisbatēñ, as is well known, are utterances in which two, three or
more things are described in which something does not seem to fit, and
the other person is asked to find the one thing that can be put together
with the rest.
(10) In a pahēlī, the qualities, features of something are described and
someone is asked to identify that thing. The great value of a riddle is that
the name of the thing itself comes out in the description of the qualities
and features and still the other person does not get it.
(11) In a mukrī, a woman says something that means one thing to her
beloved and something else to another person, so that a loverís words can
be disguised.

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Naʾīa ʿUmda ʿImāratōñ ke Bābat Ẓilaʿ Dehlī̄. Qila-e Muʿallā: Mabaʿ
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